1. Field of the Invention
In general, beverages such as beer are placed in containers, such as casks, which have as part of their assembly an extractor tube which extends from the outlet to adjacent the bottom of the cask. A well known apparatus for controlling the removal of liquid through such an extractor tube is a ball valve which cooperates with a valve seat. The present invention relates to an improved valve seat which incorporates all of the valuable features of valve seats known in the prior art but affords the additional significant advantage of being easier, quicker and therefore cheaper to produce, thereby resulting in substantial savings.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Ball valve seats which are known in the prior art generally comprise an annular body of resilient material which is reinforced internally by a unitary metal insert. This metal insert has a relatively complex shape and is ordinarily manufactured by a painstaking machining operation. The unitary metal insert is customarily machined from a single blank. Due to the extensive machining operation, the manufacturing process is time consuming and very expensive, thereby resulting in a high cost for such a ball valve seat.
There is no presently known apparatus for providing a simple, inexpensive metal insert to reinforce the resilient material such as rubber for a valve seat.